A Person Who Protects His Mind

Notes: A Person Who Protects His Mind
Raul Ries
9/9/2014

Next week we will start in the book of Matthew and go chapter by chapter. He suggest reading it before we come next week.

What are we thinking about?

The mind controls the good and the evil.

When we come to Christ, we are to reckon the old man to be dead. 

We are to be in the word, in prayer, in churches of fellowship.

It was said: The church today is a 1000 mikes long but only 3 feet deep. 

Church is not like a movie theater, it is a place to develop. 

The word of God cleanses our minds and hearts. You have to put on the whole armor of God, the mind is the helmet.

God took Ezekiel's wife from him. In 722 BC, Syria took Judah. 

God used an evil nation to come and chasten the people of Israel. Could America be being chastened by our own government today?

In Babylon people were in captivity for 70 years.

Daniel was around in these times. 

Ezekiel 8:1-2 NKJV
[1] And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there. [2] Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire-from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber.


This was the appearance of God, no one has seen the front side of God.

Ezekiel 8:3 NKJV
[3] He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy.

When he was taken to the temple, he saw jealousy.

God was with them, God warned them, God moved away, then God left them.

God took Ezekiel into the peoples minds.

Ezekiel 8:5 NKJV
[5] Then He said to me, "Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north." So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

Jealousy was a god to the people those days. Today many people now to jealousy as a god.

Could it be possible today that we could have a nation invade us? Iran, Turkey, Russia, those country's don't fear us like they were in the past.

Like in the 7th century, Islam is trying to take the world over again today. Like how Revelation 13 describes.

Muslims all around the world are trying to take over. Raul says he sees this more and more each day. Like Ezekiel 39 describes.

Raul is talking about how 9 jets are currently missing.

Ezekiel 8:6 NKJV
[6] Furthermore He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations."

The house of Israel would be the church, such as Christians are today.

Raul says he counsels a lot of people and he really gets to see how sick people are inside the church today. 

Ezekiel 8:7 NKJV
[7] So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.

God is going to take him into the minds of the people.

Ezekiel 8:9-10 NKJV
[9] And He said to me, "Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there." [10] So I went in and saw, and there-every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls.

Everywhere he looked he saw how polluted and damaged all of these peoples minds are.

Raul hears what people are watching and doing in their own homes and says that is what is what is going in in their minds.

So God can dwell in your home, or mind, it needs to be clean.

Ezekiel 8:11 NKJV
[11] And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.

This is the pastors, saying prayers. Like the incense the prayers were going no where.

Ezekiel 8:12 NKJV
[12] Then He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'"

In the light of Jesus in your life, that can affect and add the light into other's lives. You need to have a place for God to have that light showing from your life.

If we stumble people as Christians we are held more accountable. The more we have the more we are responsible for.

The Holy Spirit convicts us, if we don't listen then the Holy Spirit will chasten. Like spanking your child for walking into a street, it is so they remember not to do it again.

Like in Revelation 20, God will not hold us accountable for every sin, but for the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That sin will get you thrown into the lake of fire.

Raul admits when he reads about Heaven, or the end of Revelation he doesn't clearly understand it. 

God is everywhere, people have to worship God in spirit and in truth. God sees, He hears and then he touches our lives.

Ezekiel 8:13-14 NKJV
[13] And He said to me, "Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing." [14] So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD's house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

Tammuz, is a person in the Old Testament, she was the god of fertility. Babies were sacrificed to this false gods. Raul speaks of abortions and how many of them have taken place today.

Ezekiel 8:15-16 NKJV
[15] Then He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these." [16] So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

The priest were worshipping the sun, not God.

Ezekiel 8:17 NKJV
[17] And He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose.

A cult was doing that with branches in their noses.

Ezekiel 8:18 NKJV
[18] Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them."

Maybe there in no response in America by God to the church because of these same things. Individuals are having prayers answered but the church is not getting a revival or prayers answered as God helps individuals.

The word of God is what keeps us moving as individual Christians. Imagine what we could do to the darkness, if as a whole church we stayed in God's word.

You need to pray to God so that He can speak to your heart.

If you spend time in the word of God every morning, when you have trials throughout the day, God will be there for you.

When you raise your hands to God during worship time, that is a small sign of surrender to God.

God does not have to continue to speak to us, we must pray that He continues too.

Keep your eyes and ears on Jesus!